Let the car­ton com­pe­ti­tion be­gin

The Awe­some Col­gate Car­ton Race is back and bet­ter than ever with pri­mary and in­ter­me­di­ate schools across New Zealand pre­par­ing to vie for $70,000 worth of sport­ing equip­ment as the com­pe­ti­tion starts.

Af­ter the suc­cess of last year’s com­pe­ti­tion, the race re­turns and chal­lenges schools to col­lect as many empty Col­gate tooth­paste car­tons as pos­si­ble be­fore June 29.

The race is part of an aware­ness cam­paign to pro­mote the im­por­tance of healthy life­styles while en­cour­ag­ing chil­dren to brush thier teeth at least twice a day.

Oral health con­tin­ues to be of con­cern for New Zealand chil­dren, high­lighted by the lat­est New Zealand Oral Health Sur­vey which shows nearly half of all New Zealand chil­dren (aged 2 to 17) will have a tooth cav­ity be­fore they reach adult­hood.

‘‘There’s a lot we can do to im­prove the oral health of Kiwi kids,’’ said Col­gate Pal­mo­live mar­ket­ing di­rec­tor Jar­rad Mur­ray. ‘‘ We need to work harder to help our kids do bet­ter in this area.’’

As well as a num­ber of spot prizes this year, ma­jor prizes of sports equip­ment will now be pre­sented to first, sec­ond and third place win­ners in two ma­jor cat­e­gories: schools with up to 250 pupils on their roll and schools with more than 250 pupils.

The win­ning schools must col­lect the high­est num­ber of Col­gate tooth­paste car­tons for each stu­dent to re­ceive the prizes.

Creative Car­tons Col­gate will also put up $10,000 worth of sports equip­ment for the top three most creative uses of Col­gate tooth­paste car­tons on a sport­ing theme. Pho­tos must be up­loaded to the Col­gate web­site by Sun­day, June 3, with all en­tries then judged by Col­gate to pro­duce 10 fi­nal­ists.

Peo­ple will then have the chance to vote on the most creative en­tries on the Col­gate NZ Face­book page: face­book.com/ col­gatenz.

For more in­for­ma­tion on the com­pe­ti­tion or to re­ceive an en­try kit, please visit: col­gate­car­ton­race.co.nz.

What does tooth­paste have to do with sport?

Col­gate Tooth­paste has been a part of New Zealand chil­dren’s oral health for more than 75 years. It sup­ports chil­dren’s ath­let­ics through the Col­gate Games, New Zealand’s na­tional in­ter­club ath­let­ics com­pe­ti­tion for more than 30 years.